For a large part, thanks to the effort of Johannes Brahms, who introduced him to his publisher Simrock, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák developed into a composer with an international reputation. Don’t we all know his Slavonic Dances, his Symphonies or his chamber music, such as the Dumky Trio or the American string quartet? This album reveals some of the more hidden treasures of Dvořák’s repertoire, namely his overtures, of which he wrote no less than thirteen.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure in 2010. The CSO is one of five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five".

The debut album of the string ensemble 'Metamorphoses Berlin' under the baton of its leader Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt follows the basic idea of 'inspiration' - in this instance, inspiration as the explicitly mutual, creative interaction between Antonin Dvořák, Josef Suk, and Victor Herbert.

The Jerusalem Quartet explores two aspects of Dvořák’s chamber music: one of the first big successes in the genre of a Bohemian composer who now enjoyed a well-established reputation in Europe (op.48), and one of the masterpieces from the years of American exile which brought him worldwide fame (op.97).

The Jerusalem Quartet explores two aspects of Dvořák’s chamber music: one of the first big successes in the genre of a Bohemian composer who now enjoyed a well-established reputation in Europe (op.48), and one of the masterpieces from the years of American exile which brought him worldwide fame (op.97).

"Piano trios have often been formed by a threesome of like-minded soloists: the fabled Million Dollar Trio of Heifetz, Rubinstein and Piatigorsky springs to mind. The present ensemble, founded in 2009, belongs decidedly to this illustrious line. The three trios were recorded in Nimbus s hall at Wyastone Leys, a most vivid acoustic that brings the three players straight into one s living room." The Strad

Full-blooded quartet playing in the grand, classic manner: extrovert and eloquent is how the performances of the Escher String Quartet were described in a review of their recording of Mendelssohns first and fourth quartets in BBC Music Magazine. After completing the three-disc cycle of Mendelssohn quartets and earning further accolades, including a nomination to the 2017 BBC Music Magazine Awards the quartet now returns with a programme which leaves plenty of opportunity for their special brand of playing.

In 1984 Steven Isserlis made excellent recordings for Hyperion of the Brahms sonatas with Peter Evans; this time he's added some substantial extra items – the two Suk pieces, wonderfully played, are particularly welcome. The new recording is fuller in sound and more realistic; Stephen Hough's commanding playing of Brahms's 'big' piano parts could, one feels, overpower the cello but, thanks to his sensitivity, this never happens.

"The Americans expect great things of me,’ Dvorák wrote in November 1892 to his friend Josef Hlávka, ‘and the main thing, so they say, is to show them the way to the promised land and kingdom of a new and independent art, in short, to create a national music."

Already established as a tireless promoter of Czech music, Jakub Hrůša was the inaugural winner in 2015 of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize for his advocacy of Janáček’s works, going on to receive ecstatic reviews in 2016 for Glyndebourne Opera’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen. One reviewer enthused that Hrůša “clearly has this music in his bones and blood … he asks for (and gets) an urgent, raw and abrasive quality, expressive of nothing less than the life force itself.” (The Telegraph, 13 June 2016).